The latest news from Southport Waterloo Athletics Club

SOUTHPORT WATERLOO’S international veteran runner Sue Cooper returned from the European Masters Championships at Ghent in Belgium last week with a W55 silver medal in the indoors 3000m in 11:54.46, a W55 bronze medal in the cross country event and a GB team gold medal also in the cross country.

SOUTHPORT WATERLOO’S international veteran runner Sue Cooper returned from the European Masters Championships at Ghent in Belgium last week with a W55 silver medal in the indoors 3000m in 11:54.46, a W55 bronze medal in the cross country event and a GB team gold medal also in the cross country.

Sue expressed surprise as she feels she has not yet returned to form after a long lay-off last summer but clearly she has underlying fitness.

Steve James finished just outside the individual medals but took a cross country bronze as part of the Great Britain team.

At the younger end of the spectrum, six of Southport Waterloo juniors were representing Merseyside schools at the Aviva English schools XC championship in Nottingham.Š

Luke unfortunately was suffering from the after-effects of a chest infection on the day.

In the Junior girls' 3.25km race, Ellie Roberts was the club’s only representative and came 156th in 14:09 (fourth Merseyside counter).

This was a solid result for Ellie who like a number of the club’s athletes on the day were not feeling their best.

The Intermediate Boys 5.5km race was an exceptional race for Merseyside.

They only narrowly missed taking the gold in the team event.

First finisher for Merseyside was the extremely talented Matt Shirling (St Helens Sutton AC) who finished second in 17:42. Southport Waterloo's Niall Cullen was an uncertain starter before the race, but he made the start and was rewarded with an excellent 52nd place in 19:02.

The Senior age races were lacking some big names this year due to people attending the World Cross Country Championships in Spain.

Southport Waterloo’s representative was Jenny Girdler in the Senior girls 4.5km race. Jenny finished a very creditable 189th in 17:58.

At an even younger age, Southport Waterloo hosted the fourth annual Sefton Junior Schools Cross Country Championships, held last Wednesday on Deansgate Lane Playing Fields in Formby.

The event attracts more runners every year and this year there were over 260 finishers from 22 schools.

The overall Southport Waterloo Challenge Trophy was won by Great Crosby Catholic Primary School, who also won last year and are now clearly the school to beat in these championships.

Our Lady of Compassion was second overall and Shoreside third.

The fixture started with the Year 5 girls running about 1.5km. There were 67 finishers, led home by Yasmin Leece from Merchant Taylors’ in 6:05.

Lily Spence from Great Crosby was second in 6:10 and Alex Bunclark from St Mary's Prep was third in 6:15.

In the Year 5 Boys' race, Tom Langford from Norwood was first home, over the same course as the girls, in 5:34. Benjamin Apps of Our Lady of Lourdes was second in 5:39 and Matthew Kershaw was third in 5:40.

Ben is already a member of Southport Waterloo and a regular competitor. Shoreside won the team competition with Our Lady of Compassion second and St Mary's Prep third.

The Year 6s ran a small and a large lap for 2km and, in the Year 6 Girls' race there were 66 finishers – a vast increase on the 26 from last year!

Emma Alderson, representing Trinity St Peter’s, was content to bide her time until, with about 300m to go on the last lap, she surged into the lead and finished first in 8:13.

Ellie Dewsberry of Great Crosby was second in 8:21 and Olivia Byrne was third in 8:25. Ellie was first and Olivia second in last year's Year 5 race and Emma was the Year 5 one-mile race winner in Victoria Park last year.

Both Emma and Olivia already run for Southport Waterloo.

The team event here was won by Great Crosby with Our Lady of Compassion second and Shoreside third.

Southport Waterloo had a few other runners here. Nisha Kumari-Webster, third Year 5 last year, was fifth in 8:40, Jessica Beasley 13th in 9:24, Sarah Glover 14th in 9:28 and Sophie Dermott-Derrane 16th in 9:37.

Finally, the Year 6 Boys took on the one small /one large lap challenge and Connor Bligh from Shoreside emerged the clear winner in 7:30 with Oliver Sutton of Our Lady of Compassion second in 7:49 and James Hough from Norwood third in 7:53.

Our Lady of Compassion won the team race with Shoreside second and Great Crosby third Other Southport Waterloo runners noted were Oliver Burril fifth in 7:54 and Jimmy Alderson, seventh in 8:07.